Cyclotron

Cyclotron
Stewart Clelland, 6490111

(Dated: November 28, 2014)
The cyclotron is the third iteration of particle accelerator, the successor to the linear accelerator
(lineac) and the Van De Graaf generator. It was developed in the early 20th century to analyze
atomic structure and is still used today as a producer of medical radiation and radioisotopes. This
paper will detail the history, development, theory and uses of the cyclotron.
I.
A.
B.
HISTORY
Previous Accelerators
The Cyclotron was developed in the wake of the successful linear accelerator (linac), a particle accelerator
still used today due to its advantages over circular accelerators in the realm of heavy ion acceleration. The
motivation of the linac was to accelerate charged particles using a lower voltage than a Van De Graff generator.
It succeeded by using a series of charged tubes fed by an
RF source to vary the charge to reuse the same voltage
differential many times, thereby accelerating a charged
particle[6] through multiple electrode gaps. See figure 1.
Cyclotron Development
The conception of the cyclotron is attributed to Ernest

O. Lawrence beginning in 1929 when he discovered a paper written by Rolf Widere describing a drift tube linac
[5]. Rolf, a German electrical engineer who had studied both electrical engineering and physics, conceived of
a method of accelerating charged particles with an RF
electrical field(cite german). The issue with Wideres
proposal was the need for the accelerated ion to spend
equal time in each subsequent drift tube. his limitation
naturally leeds to the increase in length of the subsequent drift tubes in Wideres proposal (proportional to
the square roots of integers)[5].Due to the relatively low
frequency circuits available at the time, and the scaling of
drift tubes, acceleration of heavy ions was deemed practical due to the lower velocities. However, attempting to
accelerate light ions to high energy leads to impractically
long tubes.
To overcome the issue with lighter ions, Lawrence conceived of a circular accelerator with two D shaped electrodes, of oscillating opposite charged used to accelerate
ions to high energies (see figure 2).
Figure 1. Overview of a Linear Accelerator
Modern linacs such as the Stanford Linear Accelerator

Center (SLAC) can produce electrons of 25GeV. The
drawback is, that to reach these energies, the SLAC
needs 3.2km and costs 315 million dollars. The size,
complexity and costs involved motivated the development of the first circular accelerator, the cyclotron.[8]
Figure 2. View of cyclotron from above
Also at Physics
[email protected]
Department,
University
of
Ottawa.;
The undertaking of transforming this concept into reality was seized by a graduate student named M. Stanley
Livingston. He produced the first working model of the
2
cyclotron at 4.5in in diameter with the ability to accelerate ions up to 80 000 eV [7].
II.
HARDWARE
The construction of a primitive cyclotron is a product of relatively few pieces. To construct a cyclotron we
will refer to original patent filings[5] to describe necessary
parts and their roles.
(b) A rectifier circuit to convert utilities AC to

DC (24).
(c) An high frequency oscillatory electrical circuit
to provided voltage to the two hollow semihemispherical electrodes oscillator.
5. A means to inject ions into the center of the apparatus 30.
6. An exit for the beamline 55.
III.
A.
THEORY
Cyclotronic Frequency
The basic theory of operation of a cyclotron revolves

around a equation relaying the frequency of the electric circuit, the mass of the particle, the force of the
magnetic field, and the charge. The cyclotron frequency (fcyclotron ) or the equivalent angular frequency
(cyclotron ) can be derived by looking at Newtons equation [5].
Fmagnetic = Fcentripetal
qB =
m 2
r
Where m is the mass of the particle, is its velocity and

r is its gyroradius.
r=
Figure 3. A technical drawing of the view from figure 2
1. Two semi-hemispherical hollow electrodes denoted

6 and 7. In between these dees are where the
particle is accelerated by the potential difference of
the two electrodes
2. A sealed metal pressure vessel to contain the moving particle 8.
3. A vacuum pump attached to 15, along with hydrogen gas to flush the system through 16.
4. Electrical
(a) A powerful electromagnet producing a magnetic field normal to the electric field between
the electrodes 11. These serve a dual purpose, they keep the path of the charged particle curved within the apparatus aswell as keep
the beam focused in the middle of the upper
and lower surface of the electrode.
T =
m
qB
2r
2m
2m
=
=
qB
qB
resonance =
qB
m
or equivalently
fresonance =
qB
2m
This equation holds only for non-relativistic conditions.

Due to the high velocities we can obtain through cyclotrons, it is necessary to modify this characteristic
equation to account for relativistic mass. However, it
should be noted that due to constraints at the time, cyclotrons had a constant frequency. Therefore, as a particle was accelerated and its mass increased, the frequency
of the cyclotron would be too high for the relativistic
mass unless the magnetic field was varied.
=
3
is the relativistic velocity, while
1
=p
1 2
is the Lorentz factor.
where is the deflection at distance z of the central

plane by an ion of charge e, average energy E with velocity , crossing a sinusoidal electric field of /2 at phase
relative to maximum potential 2V0 [3]. The electronic
focusing is dominant for about the first third of the radius, with magnetic focusing dominating thereafter.
m = m0
is the corrected mass Therefore, with relativistic consideration, the cyclotron resonance frequency would be
f=
f0
However, if we may vary the magnetic field as previously

stated, something that was possible during the 1930s. We
can simply set
B = B0
which allows our factors to cancel, and returns our
gyroradius to
r=
Figure 4. Electric focusing in between the Dees [3]
m0
qB0
D.
B.
Cyclotron Kinetic Energy
When discussing particle accelerators, the characteristic most often mentioned is the energy of the apparatus.
This energy is the kinetic energy KE of an outgoing particle. In a cyclotron, the KE varies according to charge
and the mass of the particle involved. We begin with the
maximum gyroradius rmax a particle can have within the
cyclotron.
rmax =
m
qB
We then solve for

=
KE =
C.
qBrmax
m
(qBr)2
m 2
=
2
2m
Magnetic Focusing
Due to the finite nature of the electromagnets, on the

outside bounds of the magnets we encounter fringing (see
figure 5). This fringing acts on the ions pushing them
back towards the central plane as illustrated by the solid
arrows. The amplitude of the oscillations about the central axis near the rim decay over time as a function of
this restoring force. Stanley writes it as
2 d ln Hz
z=
d ln R

41
Where Hz is the field component producing motion in

the z direction at r. The resulting movement of the
charged particle will be a function of both the electrical and magnetic field. The focusing will be adequate if
the maximum amplitude of oscillation is less than half
the internal height of the electrodes.
Electric Focusing
During the path of a charged particle about the cyclotron, it is necessary to ensure the particle stays in the
center plane. This is done in the acceleration regions between the dees. This focusing is done by two cylindrical electric lenses that run along the top and the bottom
of gap between the Dees. The equation governing the
magnitude of electrical focusing is described by Stanley
Livingston as

2
eV0 z
1 eV0 z
=
sin
cos2
E
2 E
k
Figure 5. Magnetic focusing[3]
4
IV.
A.
USES
would be collected. After many subsequent runs through

calutrons, the U-235 would be weapons grade.
Medical
The primary use of cyclotrons in the medical field are

isotope production and a positron emission source [2].
Due to the short half life of some medical isotopes, the
ability to have on site production is indispensable [10].
The nature of the radioisotopes produced is also very
different from that of a reactor.
Figure 6. The difference between radioisotpes of reactors and

cyclotrons [10]
The difference, as you can see, is that reactor radioisotopes generally lie above the line of stability. Therefore
their decay mode is often whereas accelerator isotopes tend to have + emission or electron capture. This
decay mode leads to applications in molecular imaging
due to its high specific activity. Today there are close
to 20 radioisotopes with medical applications that can
be produced by cyclotrons, amongst which more than a
third have half lives less than an hour and a half [10].
These short lived isotopes must be manufactured on
site so that research may be carried out prior to total
decay. The advent of low cost medical cyclotrons has
the ability to revolutionize isotope research due to its
new found viability. Furthermore, as seen in the past 4
years with the Chalk River reactor, relying on a single
large source for isotopes such as Technetium 99 can be
disastrous for the medical community[4].
Figure 7. The operation of a calutron [9]
V.
NOTABLE EXAMPLES[1]
1. UC Berkley 27-inch was used to produce 6MeV

deuterons in 1937, it was the first to probe neutrondeuteron interactions.
2. In 1942, Berkley Rad Lab produced a 184-inch cyclotron whose energy exceeded 100 MeV. It was
used to develope the calutrons as well as bombard
U238 to add a proton, becoming U239, which decays to Plutonium-239. In the end, the X-10 reactor was used in the Manhattan project, but the
decay path remains the same.
VI.
CONCLUSION
During WWII, Lawrence developed a device for the

Manhattan project that was derivative of his cyclotron.
This device, named a calutron functioned as a hybrid
mass spectrometer/cyclotron. The calutron was used to
separate isotopes of Uranium-235 from Uranium-238 by
function of accelerating them through a magnetic field,
the lighter Uranium-235 would have a tighter arc and
The cyclotron, while being a simple device by modern standards, is arguably the first generation of modern
particle accelerators. The energies obtained allowed the
us to examine the nucleus using particle bombardment,
allowed us to create new isotopes of medical importance
and create nuclear weapons. The fact that cyclotrons
are still used today is a testament to their simple and
versatile nature. While outclassed in modern physics by
CERN scaled accelerators, with the ability for more research hospitals to experiment with previously exotic radioisotopes, it is likely we will see many more advancements from the cyclotron in the applied domain.
[1] ELECTROMAGNETIC AND NUCLEAR INTERACTIONS, chapter 3, pages 205276.

[2] Leonard G. Gomella and Steven A. Haist. Chapter 15.
Imaging Studies. The McGraw-Hill Companies, New
York, NY, 2007.
[3] M. Stanley Livingston. The cyclotron. i. Journal of Applied Physics, 15(1), 1944.
[4] Tim Lougheed. Cyclotron production of medical isotopes
scales up. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 947,
2013.
B.
Manhattan
5
[5] L.E. O. Method and apparatus for the acceleration of
ions, February 20 1934. US Patent 1,948,384.
[6] American Institute of Physics. Early particle accelerators, 2014.
[7] APS Physics. Ernest lawrence and m. stanley livingston,
2014.
[8] Stanford Physics. The stanford linear accelerator center,

2014.
[9] AlfredL. Yergey and A.Karl Yergey. Preparative scale
mass spectrometry: A brief history of the calutron.
Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry,
8(9):943953, 1997.
[10] M. A. AvilaRodr
guez, A. Z
arateMorales, and A. FloresMoreno. Cyclotron production of medical radioisotopes.
AIP Conference Proceedings, 1265(1), 2010.

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Cyclotron

Stewart Clelland, 6490111

The conception of the cyclotron is attributed to Ernest

Figure 1. Overview of a Linear Accelerator

Modern linacs such as the Stanford Linear Accelerator

Figure 2. View of cyclotron from above

(b) A rectifier circuit to convert utilities AC to

The basic theory of operation of a cyclotron revolves

Where m is the mass of the particle, is its velocity and

Figure 3. A technical drawing of the view from figure 2

1. Two semi-hemispherical hollow electrodes denoted

This equation holds only for non-relativistic conditions.

where is the deflection at distance z of the central

However, if we may vary the magnetic field as previously

Figure 4. Electric focusing in between the Dees [3]

Cyclotron Kinetic Energy

We then solve for

Due to the finite nature of the electromagnets, on the

Where Hz is the field component producing motion in

Figure 5. Magnetic focusing[3]

would be collected. After many subsequent runs through

The primary use of cyclotrons in the medical field are

Figure 6. The difference between radioisotpes of reactors and

Figure 7. The operation of a calutron [9]

1. UC Berkley 27-inch was used to produce 6MeV

During WWII, Lawrence developed a device for the

[1] ELECTROMAGNETIC AND NUCLEAR INTERACTIONS, chapter 3, pages 205276.

[8] Stanford Physics. The stanford linear accelerator center,

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